New England Spring - Festivals begin!

So - we're home, it was a heck of an adventure and my kids are happy to be home, and I even got back to my Thursday evening spinning - something that just hasn't happened in a while due to my spinning partner in crime being in her first trimester of pregnancy (she's out now and finds out tomorrow if she has a baby boy or girl in there *grins*.)

If you are around Bristol CT on Thursday night and want to come spin with us - please do! We meet up at about 6:30 PM and are there until they close up. This week is iffy as to if we'll be there or not, but other weeks you can definitely find us there.

So that silk and merino/tencil I promised pics of? My hands area bit rough but somewhere I read a trick about salt and olive oil exfoliation... it's also supposed to smooth hands for working with silk. The silk will be fun to work with though - I have several silk hankies that I've spun up and just loved working with.

I had hoped to post more when I was in Las Vegas, but my little Diva didn't get as much done on her homeschooling programs during the days like we'd have liked, so before bed at night this became a frequent visage in the window...



She's a bright little cookie and has figured out how to use my cell phone as well. She has started texting folks, not content to work on her homeschool website, - no she also wants to Text Daddy, Auntie Reesa, Grandma, and a few others. It makes things a little challenging as she's got my phone figured out better than I have.

So it's spring, shearing season is upon us, and more than likely I will be going back to the same farm in June to pick up more fleeces. Sunny and I are going to wash them out in her backyard this time though, so when we send them off for processing we're not paying an arm and a leg for processing gunk out that we could do ourselves. We also hope to do a bit more dying together than we did last summer. We'll be doing as much as we can outside in the shade as she'll be getting rather large by then...

I am really excited for both she and her husband - this is their first baby, and my Husband was best man at their wedding. As her husband's a police officer in the next town over, there are very few odds that we'll ever have pictures of him posted here, but for future reference, I'll just call him Kel here. Kel's a pretty good guy and I've known him for ages... I don't think he really grasps what we're doing yet with the spinning though. *grins* When his house is overtaken with yarn, as well as all the baby paraphernalia I'm sure I'll get partial blame.

I am looking forward to the CT Sheep and Wool festival as well. It is the 100'th anniversary of it, but I can't find a functioning website for it anymore. Which completely stinks. I know it is happening though - and on April 26, Sunny and I will be there. I'm hoping that Claire can make it too - it's a small enough venue that we may bring my little Diva and if Claire brings her daughter, I expect they will play well together, leaving the adults to be able to oggle spinning wheels and fiber as well as let Sunny get a chance to try out several types of spinning wheels to see if she likes one over another... until then she's using mine and really enjoying it - when she's not having tension problems. ;-)

And speaking of Tension - I'll have a whopper of a tension problem tomorrow if I don't get to sleep now. I'll be bringing a wheel with me to my daughter's dance class, so I should get some sleep now.

Until later!

Back to spinning!

Well I seriously doubt I'm going to fill that custom order by Monday but I'm spinning away... it's a self imposed deadline, not one put on me by the buyer, but still... I had wanted to get it done.

This afternoon I was back at my Mother in Law's, spinning while getting a little adult female social interaction. She and I had a very hard time initially connecting leading to a stressful first few years that my husband and I were together, and somehow after all this time we've come together as kindred spirits - women who left their immediate family miles and miles away and started a family here in New England. She really has become a close friend, and I love her dearly.

The me of a decade ago would have wondered what sort of happy pills I was on for saying that by the way... just to give you an idea of how it was.

But today we sat, drinking our coffee, I spun, she relaxed as much as a Grandma with two very young grand children can (my kids adore her but they are really tiring as they somehow appear to be fueled by Jet Fuel LOL!) I managed to get maybe 15o yards spun, but it wasn't my goal, so tomorrow I'm going to be spinning again here at home, and really hoping that I can make a sizable dent in that order.

After I spin it, I'll be doing the dying. It's a bit in reverse for how I work, but I want to make sure that I can do it uniformly and want to get the whole thing done in one day. I upped my difficulty level in meeting that self imposed deadline when I brought my flyer but not the attached whorl for my Kiwi and had to return home for it.

I've decided I'll be bringing a couple of drop spindles with me on my trip. I'll take some silk and a very lightweight drop spindle and then I'll take probably 4 ounces of Tunis and use my Golding for that. I have no idea as to if I'll get enough time to spin when in Las Vegas, but I hope to try, and there is always naptime for the kids.

My daughter has been asking "Is it time to go to Grandma Lanies yet?" It's been her mantra after getting up in the morning, after dance class, after sleeping over at her Paternal Grandma's and has beat out her request for a baby sister. This one I can honestly say "very soon" and not worry about getting harangued too much. The whole baby sister thing? Thats another can of worms entirely.

The Diva has learned to knit on a Knifty Knitter loom this week. She has me wrap her loops for her, which I don't mind doing, and has had great fun knitting while mommy knits. It's funny how daughters want to be their mothers, I remember wanting to be mine when I was a child, and now I see my daughter wanting to be me - down to insisting we wear the same shoes, and trying to wear my clothing already.

She'll be using my drop spindle before I know it, and will be spinning on a wheel without any assistance soon too.

I'm not ready for her to be so grown up but she is, so I get to roll with it and just enjoy the ride.

Well it's 1am and I am likely going to be woken up by fierce little people in the morning so I should get some sleep. I'll have a post with pics tomorrow and a request for spinner's with scotch tensioning experience.

Frenzied Friday

Mood: Amused

Music: Labrynth

Ok - what is it with me and Ashford Bobbins?  I have had three FOUR bobbins fall apart on me today and they are all being glued back together with Gorilla glue (by my wonderful hubby.) Completely aggrivating and thanks to the first break of the day I had to start over on an entire spool as with the bobbin falling apart the whole spool's worth fell apart.  I'll save that for re-carding into an art yarn or something.



Not counting what I had to put aside for re-carding, I'm 300 yards into the custom order, on a single ply - with this afternoons spinning.  I didn't get uninterrupted spinning time, but that's ok.  I've not had the chance for this much uninterrupted spinning time in a while and since the kids are both asleep I'm seriously tempted (it's 10:25pm right now as I edit this) to go continue spinning.  The problem with that is my Jumbo bobbins are down for repair right now.  Tomorrow I'll be able to spin again, and it's actually a good thing that I can't continue tonight.  I need to unload the dishwasher and get things together for the ham, cheese and potato soup I'll be making tomorrow.  It's one pot crazy easy dish to make, but I want to have every thing ready to go for tomorrow so prep time is as short as I can make it be.



The kids both really wanted to help, and it drove me a bit batty - but all in all it's because they wanted to play close to Mummah and I took it for the compliment that it is.  My son is still telling me he's Peter Pan, and that he can fly, and this afternoon as I was walking down the stairs from our second floor he decided to fly from the top step halfway down in a single leap to me... while proclaiming "I Flyin!"



Oh they are going to put more grey hairs on my head than I would normally have had by  40 in no time at all.  That's the job of a pre-schooler and a toddler though isn't it?



I filed our taxes tonight, and wish I'd gotten it done earlier but hey- it's done now.  Our refund isn't that great but it will help out.  Job possibilities are finally coming in, and I hope that no one is going to want to do an interview the week I'm in Nevada.  It's hard to believe that the trip will be so soon.  I'm excited and at the same time nervous, but not as nervous as I previously was due to getting that strap for Garret's car seat.  Impromptu stroller here we come... and if he's sitting on it, I don't think they will consider it a carry on, but even so I need to check out the carry on policies for both United and US Airways.



I'm going to get that kitchen work done now and then I think I'm going to listen to my creative visualization CD (for weight loss) and go to sleep.

Work Day Wednesday

So it looks like we're settling into a schedule of Wednesday's are my work days and shipping days and Mondays are my stocking days - which works as it keeps people coming into the shop on a weekly basis to see what's there. When we're not being helped by our little helpers that is... Garret wanted to have a hand in uploading photos today, but we decided it was better to let him just be in the photos. ;-)

Today I'm working on a custom order for a Mama in Canada who wants to have a heirloom created for her little girl. I've had the order forever, but haven't started on it, and now that I know I'm going away for a week the end of the month, I need to get started on it before that precious little girl goes to kindergarten.

Speaking of that - the kids and I'll be in Las Vegas the 17-23rd, but my Mother in law will be handling all shipping for orders during that time, so don't worry about things not getting out - we'll just be missing a work day, vs work and shipping, and I'll be bringing a drop spindle on the airplane. Two small kids on an airplane for an over 9 hour trip with a change over. I'm a little nervous there... Any advice on carting the car seats while traveling without another adult would be appreciated.

I got a big surprise this morning when I came back from taking the Diva to dance class... a foreclosure notice stuck in my front door.

Thank goodness it wasn't for us - which is good as we're not behind in the mortgage, but for an individual who lived there years ago - for a property the next town over. Needless to say however it was good for pumping the adrenaline. I called the attorney on the paperwork who was glad to know that the document had been served, but unhappy to find out it was to the wrong individual/address.

Also happening today is teaching my mother in law how to blog, and insert photos etc. She's capable of learning, but often knocks her level of intelligence and really shouldn't. Any woman who produced as smart as a man as I married, can't be what she tries to claim, and in no time she'll be posting with comfort and ease.

She's been increasingly partnering with me over at tgtreasures.etsy.com and is an incredibly creative woman. I came in today to find she'd made fully articulated bunny rabbits, in both country and Americana prints. They are absolutely adorable and will be stocked in the online store on Monday.

So while going out to the post office to drop off yarn orders from the past couple of days I learned something new.

Did ya'll know that it's illegal to take photo's inside the post office? Well I was told this when I was there today - not that I took photos of anyone's address or faces without permission, but was told I just can't take pics inside, so you dear reader will have to be content with an exterior shot. Although I did manage to snap a couple inside anyway.

It's been very cold here and my inlaw's christmas decor is embedded within a foot or more of snow/ice so they've not been able to get the decor out of the front yard yet.



The neighbors have had some melt today - but they got creative with their decor. Have I mentioned how much I love New England? We just didn't see stuff like this when I was growing up in the Desert of West Texas and Arizona.

Kiddos and an Etsy update!

Well it was a quiet weekend. Saturday was a hang about the house day and Sunday was Garret's second birthday party. Pics to come soon I promise.

In the mean time we had a lovely time, and got some cute videos, and are now getting socked with a winter storm. Blech. Even worse - I left my spinning wheel in my trunk of my car and I think that with weather like we're going to see tomorrow, I will be spending a lot of time inside over the next couple of days. New England in our region is supposed to get over a foot of snow. YUCK!


This is a video of our first snow in Dec, this winter - Complete with escaping polarbear club wanna be. My Toddler will be safely baby-gated inside however when I get the next video of snow. We're supposed to get something like that again tonight. BLECH!

I'm working hard at making Mondays my Etsy shop stocking day - so tomorrow I will go outside on the porch in natural light and the cold, and get some updated pictures of yarn and roving that I'm listing. Then I'll get some new items up in the Etsy shop. I took several pics tonight for listing, but my camera just doesn't do well with this florescent light and it's not got a balance feature. So - I'll just wait until the morning, and when the kids are still asleep I'll get some morning light provided it's not too grey out.

In the mean time - as it's been asked for - there is some Tunis Roving in my Etsy shop - this is undyed/unspun, and is for a particular Tunis fan I have, and I plan on dying a bunch more roving tomorrow - as well as seeing how the drain/spin function works on my washer with some roving that I won't be heart broken over if it felts up. On top of that, I seem to need to make more dryer balls as they've been a big hit of late. One never knows what's going to sell, but hey I'm all for it. The Etsy shop is making a difference for us financially right now and I'm not going t complain.

and on that note - take a look at what I'll be getting a better picture of tomorrow - and posting



Delilah does not come with the Finn Handspun ;-) She's Hobbs to my son's Calvin.


Ohhh Yummy - and only a small amount of the hand dyed/spun that I have to re-shoot and post.


And finally - My little helper... My Diva.

Feeling Creative, such a busy day

One advantage of being unemployed right now is that I can work on building up my Etsy shop's stock, and deal with the huge amount of roving I have on hand.

Just two bags of the roving I have from my recent pick up at the mill...

Today I dyed some of that roving, with the assistance of my kiddos. Tessa and Garret picked out the colors and I'm now trying to come up with names of colorways. They are hanging out overnight in the basement at my MIL's and will go out on the line tomorrow.

Rambouillet - it's a fine smooth fiber

Tunis - still in the pot, it's likely going to be a woolen yarn vs a worsted like the Rambouillet.

While I made a mess,


My mother in law sewed and filled Lavender Sachets....




and my sweet little almost 2 year old (On Friday) runs about and plays.

It was a very good day.

Raving about Roving

Today was a busy day for my fibershop online, I had run out of supplies for Drop spindles, and had a couple of orders to fill, and had to re-bag some of the fiber I usually enclose with my starter kits. This led to running about from location to location to get a few of the supplies I usually keep on hand, as well as new pads for my hubby's dremel and then getting the kits assembled and shipped out.

Which I'm pleased to say they are out and in the hands of the USPS now... and the customers have new DC's for them as Paypal hasn't increased their postage amounts for orders... boo hiss. I had to buy new postage at the post office substation, as the printed postage from paypal was short. Oops!

Before dinner I managed to unearth the Minivan from the snowbank that our tin roof had caused - completely entombing the front end of the vehicle in the last few storms, and I loaded the kids up to make that post office run, and then after returning to pick up my GPS from my normal car I drive, I picked up my husband too - who's presence delighted the kids to no end. We took the trip out to Twist of Fate in Portland, and I picked up the wool I'd dropped off in August for processing. It is now in my craft room in 9 bags waiting to be spun, or dyed, or broken into little bags to go out with the aforementioned drop spindle kits.

The Merino I had such a hard time getting a hold of from a seller on Etsy last year came back a bit neppy, and the guys had said that the fleece looked like the sheep was stressed. I can believe it, and the seller has dropped off radar and not made any further sales on Etsy since. A big box of Rambouillet which was a Hogget Fleece and increadibly greasy has come back the whitest white and so soft and beautiuful that I can't wait to work with it.

I have some Romney Cross - around 500 yards of it in a nice natural gray that I'm ooohing and ahhing over, it was beautiful to behold, and an amazing light grey that will make warm, yet pretty socks I am sure.

There is also some Tunis to die for - oh goodness, this batch is a much cleaner fleece, with far less VM in it to begin with so the fleece itself is just going to be a joy to work with.

I have a little over a pound of Jacob that I am disappointed in - it was a gamble. The cuts were too short and the fleece was vegetable matter filled even with me re-skirting the fleece after I brought it home. Win some loose some I guess. The Jacob did come back a lovely chocolate brown though, and maybe spinning will help more of the VM work its way out.

My mini van was packed, nearly to the ceiling, and my children were delighted to find that they could squish the bags like pillows. I foresee much acid dying in the near future. (I might even have some roving up on the Etsy shop for sale in the near future as I have so much that it might be worth it to start selling my colorways...)

The farm I get my Tunis and Romney fleeces from is a mile away from the spinnery, and we're going to be waiting for a call as it's lambing season, and while they haven't had any born yet, we've been told we're welcome to come back to see the Lambs once they are born. This has been met with great excitement by my 4 year old daughter who has been asking me every day "are the baby lambs born yet Mommy?"

It's sweet as all get out and amusing as heck.

And wonderful that I get to share this love with my little girl.

and Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee between my pick up in November and what I picked up tonight - I have 11 big bags of roving to play with. Oh I can't wait, and creativity is starting to bubble it's way back forth.

Starting on my video backlog...

CT Sheep and Wool Fest - April 26, 2008

Some pics from the weekend.

So as I previously wrote, on Saturday a friend, my daughter and I all went to a local farm and picked up 10.5# of fleece, and then dropped it at the processor to be made into roving.

We picked up all told 4# of Southdown, and 6.5# of Tunis - both good for teaching a new spinner in my opinion. We held back a half pound of the Tunis so sunshyn689 could learn the whole process from start to finish.

Jerimiah from Twist of Fate was awesome, and gave us the tour allowing both Tessa and sunshyn689 to see how roving is made on a larger scale than our little drum carder. Tessa was delighted to see how it all was done and was awestruck by all the bags of fleece waiting to be washed, dried and picked and carded.

From my daughter's perspective, it's always been done in a tub in the sink or bath tub with a little dish soap with as hot of water as Mommy can stand and repeated until the water was clear. We then hang it out on a rail on our porch to dry, and later it is brought and flicked out by hand and then run through the drum carder to be made into a batt.

Those Bats get torn down into strips and then I spin them into yarn, so for Tess to see it all on an industrial capacity was pretty impressive - especially when she got to see the spinner. She was pretty stunned to see that it wasn't a spinning wheel making the yarn. I have to laugh as she see's yarn at places like AC Moore and is convinced that it's all made by people in their living room watching TV while they spin.

The carding machine they have is a smaller machine as mill machines go, but that's not a bad thing. It allows them to do batches as low as 2#, making my 4# (Pre wash weight) of Southdown a sure bet to make it through after it loses at least a fourth of it's weight to the wash bin... There was much more than just the machine you see to the right, but I forgot my camera so you get what I nicked from their website... that said, if you are looking for a really nice processor - these guys are awesome.

The wool was pretty well skirted so when it gets to the stage of sitting on that conveyor belt there should be very little vegetable matter that makes it into the roving.

I have to say I like how close the spinnery is to where I work too - as I have a couple more fleeces to drop off for processing and I'll be doing that this week after work. Probably on Tuesday or Wednesday - allowing the fleece to sit in the trunk all day to kill any thing that might be living with the fleece... like say - moths or anything else that they could have been exposed to during the past 6-8 months in my sun room with a busted screen window...

While I won't get the roving back until October, I've been saying for months that I was going to drop the fiber off to be made into roving and I've just not done it.

Will I keep some back to process and blend at home? Probably. But I've decided that at 6.00 a pound to be washed and carded, that I'm just ready to have it out of my house as I don't know when I'm going to get it all processed. Their price as listed on the website is a bit more than I'm being charged, and I'm not really sure but as my stash is all pretty much low grease wool then I don't feel too guilty for the discount.

Jeremiah is a sweetie too, and the time he spent explaining to Tessa was appreciated. He also gave us a brief tour and Tess got to see the Goats and Alpaca they have as well as a couple of Ewe's and Rams they have... and the poor guy was flustered when sunshyn689 asked why he wasn't shorn down low in the back. "That's his balls ma'am." I think she was pretty embarrassed/mortified too... but it was a very funny moment. I wish I'd have gotten pictures when we went to both the farm and spinnery, as the farm was something out of my brightest and most desired dreams... oh well some day.

Anyhow - after we got back sunshyn689 started on the scour of the Tunis we held back. I don't know if she's taken any pics of it yet, but I know it's not dry yet as we got a heck of a thunderstorm yesterday which soaked the heck out of everything - including the freshly washed fleece. Next Saturday morning we'll be running it through the drum carder and then spinning it up before dying it.

On other fronts - this weekend I got some merino I've been working on finished spinning up - it came out beautiful.

The photo's not so hot, but that's ok - the single twisted up nicely without over twist, it's going to be allowed to sit on the bobbin a week or so before I run it through the yarn winder so I can create a center pull ball to ply. After measuring it up, and skeining I'll put it in the bin for photo's and sale on Etsy... it's a rather lovely yarn if I say do say so my self.

So my previous post I mentioned the BFL I had hand washed, flicked, carded and spun - here's some pics from that. This was all done from 12am Saturday to 2am sunday.

Yes - again the photo quality isn't the greatest, but it was a last minute thought of "Hey I ought to take some pics of what I've been doing for my blog... especially as I've gotten requests for them recently in my other blog. I still have half the BFL fleece to finish up - it's still slightly damp as it was on my porch when the rain that drenched the Tunis drenched my BFL as well... Given that today is going to be a scorcher, I fully expect that I'll be able to card it up in the next couple of days. It should be dry by tonight.

At present I have some Mohair/Romney in the bin you see in the far left above... I've been flicking it out, and opening the locks as well as doing a first blend with the hand cards, and then will be putting it through at least once on the drum carder. That will be set aside to spin later this week too.

I promise more photo's to come and maybe even a video from this Saturday if sunshyn689 isn't too nervous about having herself be the guinea pig in a how to session. :-)

Oh for those of you HitchHiker fans - yes the wheel is still in my car, poor thing is in the trunk with 4# of Navajo Churro and 2# of Jacob. It will probably come out of the car smelling like a sheep farm. That ought to be fun at S&B on Wednesday ;-).

(BTW - Why use sunshyn689 as a guinea pig for photos and video? She's 1. Younger 2. Pretty & 3. I'd be the one holding the camera for all this LOL!)

Stinky Fiber for a Saturday Morning

So I stepped into a heck of a deal on Monday on raw fleeces (already skirted though which is good, although I'll be doing another good once over before scouring.) sunshyn689 and I are going in the morning to look at them tomorrow and see what's in good condition and will require the least amount of work to get vegetable matter (Hay/straw) out and they've supposedly already been skirted to remove anything gross. As it's going to be 95 here tomorrow I figure I can spend part of the afternoon scouring what I pick up and then set the washed fleeces out to dry on my porch overnight - by Sunday they should be good and dry and ready to be carded to be spun...

It's going to be hot all weekend, and this will be a great time to get caught up on my fleece that I need to get processed. I'm thinking that I might pick up some staples for my staple gun, some window screen and a bunch of 1*2's to make some drying frames with... as well as latex gloves for use when washing the fleeces... ya never know until you see the fleeces out of the bag how well they were skirted for dung etc until you can lay them out on a tarp and do a good once over...

• Lincoln 8 lbs. 7” staple grey
• Lincoln 5 lbs. 4” staple light grey
• Lincoln lamb 9 lbs. 12” staple dark grey
• Lincoln 7 lbs. 7” staple silver grey
• Border Leicester 8 lbs. 8” staple white
• Romney Cross 6 lbs. 4” staple white
• Romney cross 7 lbs 4” staple white
• Romney cross 7 lbs. 5” staple white
• Southdown 4 lbs 1.5 “ staple white
• Montadale 5 lbs 3” staple white
• Tunis cross 6 lbs. 2.5 “ staple white
• Tunis 7 lbs 3.5” staple white
• Romney 8 lbs. 4.5 “ staple white
• Romney 7 lbs. 5” staple white
• Cheviot 4 lbs 4” staple white
• Oxford 7 lbs. 3.5 “ staple white
• Romney 9 lbs 5” staple white

Will I buy all these? Um No. But this is what I have to select from tomorrow. Pretty cool eh? Ok - you there reading this will probably not comment, and ya know that's ok. To me - it's pretty cool - the farm is so close to me and I like the idea of developing a relationship with a local shepard. Ok - NOW GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER, NOT THAT KIND OF A RELATIONSHIP.

Sheesh folks.

On my wheel right now I have some lovely Merino that I hand dyed in shades of red. It's spinning up pretty nicely but it appears to be more pink than red :-) we'll see how it plies up when I get to that stage. I've been pre-drafting the roving into nice spinnable slivers, and getting in some spinning time each night after the kids have gone to bed. It's a definite change for the better and I find I'm more relaxed and sleep better after getting in an hour or so of
spinning a night.

Tonight after the kids went to sleep I scoured up a pound of BFL - oh so lovely and the staple is really nice and long. I also washed a half pound of Ramboullet... nice but after doing the BFL I'm a bit spoiled... where one has such a nice long staple the other is velvety soft. I'm now going to head back down stairs, get a shipping label that's overdue onto a box to go out tomorrow morning and then get the rest of my red finished spinning so I can ply it later.

how to freak out your cube neighbors.

So as last night was the first S&B I've been to since my step dad's heart attack happened, I had my HitchHiker Mini in my car still this morning. He came in to work with me today, and I took a brief break to empty a half dozen bobbins using my ball winder that happened to just fall into my purse on my way out the door this morning as I left for work.

This is the results - all waiting plying except the one in the bottom left corner - that's a failed experiment in plying Alpaca, and it's soft, but man I do not advise using the Kate on a HitchHiker Mini for the purposes of plying. Seriously... it's nice stuff, but that other alpaca you see there, it's going to be plied with some Silk I think. Something complimentary that I've been working on with a drop spindle I think. Something with dark but complimentary colors.

I do now have several empty bobbins though - which will give me a chance to get to more of the roving for that lovely purple and green colorway in the bottom right of the yarn ball pyramid. Do I know the yardage or ouncage on any of these yet? Nope. Won't do that until the end, and I still have all of the below shown roving to spin as well.

Isn't it all so pretty? Almost done and I have 3/4 a bobbin full still on the Mini. I'll be plying this colorway against itself, unles I find something in my fiber bin that sings to me to blend the shades together.

What will I do with these? Well when finished they'll end up in my Etsy shop or as gifts to my knitting friends... as usual.

BTW - regarding the previous post, my little guy is doing well. Thanks to all who contacted me off blog to check on him :-) He joined me for lunch yesterday and charmed every one in his path. I'm so in for it...

Silk nice, icecube on my bum not.

Ok, so in the face of all that's going on right now with my step dad being ill and having recently lost my step mom - which brings the loss of my dad to the forefront of my mind and heart, I decided that if the kids won't let me get time on the wheel I'd haul out a drop spindle. After all, with a drop spindle there is no chance of little fingers getting caught in whirring parts.

So I've been working on a lovely silk colorway that I think is in need of spinning up in a ply with some Alpaca. The Alpaca only has me peeved with trying to ply it with more alpaca and I think that's got a lot to do with the fact that I'm using the onboard kate and my HitchHiker to do the plying, so my need for a real tensioned kate is coming back into play.

*sigh* I was going to get one at the CT Sheep and Wool festival - really, but for whatever reason it didn't happen.

I need to keep an eye out for one, maybe if we get to go to Coggeshall farm in RI this weekend I'll find something I like.

So - regarding the title? My three year old daughter is an ice chewer. She just crawled into bed and dropped a piece of ice down the back of my pajamas giving me a rude awakening. Then she runs off giggling maniacally.

I want to know who taught her that trick. I truly think they deserve a special thank you of their own. Don't you?

Well wishes sought

My step dad had a heart attack last night. Not a strong man to begin with, this is a very bad bit of news. There may be a trip to Las Vegas for me soon, and it's not to gamble...

I have a rough game plan if I need to go out for the funeral, and a very liberal boss who will undoubtedly be understanding. My complications will be of the financial and toddler kind. Yep - my 14 month old is still nursing, and it's not like I could leave him behind. It's hard enough thinking about leaving my three year old and husband, but man airfare isn't cheap and we've cut down our trips out as it is - I saw gas on the pump this morning for 3.99 a gallon. OUCH.

Now if he happens to miraculously recover (ha - don't laugh, he's managed it before, he's awful ornery and love my mom too much to just check out on her despite frail health) then I'll be taking my three year old to the fiber fest at the Coggeshall farm in Rhode Island next Saturday. She has a love for spinning, and I think that getting her turned on to non oil dependent (other than the petrol to get there to learn more) activities and fabrics and means of living is a good thing.

We'll have to see what the week brings before we make solid plans.

Hitchhiker Tuneup

After fighting with the wheel for 6 months I took this with me to the CT Sheep and Wool Festival and had David Paul from the Merlin Tree give it a once over for me. I love this little wheel for the portability, but man the ability to use it has been pretty hampered as it was noisy, and seemed to have a wobble to it - which it did due to a broken wheel bearing... which David replaced at no charge. The gals at Stitch N Bitch will all be happier for the lack of obnoxious clacking.

It works beautiful now, due to the combined efforts of both my Father in Law and David, and betwixt the two I now can spin pretty much anywhere... infact as I type this, the wheel is in the trunk of my car and is going to be brought into the office with me tomorrow so when I get stressed out I can spin on lunch and relax again.




We have a wedding to go to over the weekend, and this little wheel will be coming with. Right now I have some Alpaca on the bobbin from Hunter Hill Alpaca's in part because a very dear friend finally lit a fire under me and said she realllllllllllly wanted some that I'd hand spun. ;-)

In my fiber chest I also happen to have some Cormo/Angora, Cormo, Romney, Bison, Bombyx Silk, Ramboullet, Mohair, Navajo Churro, Merino, Tussah Silk, and Tencil. I'm sure I've forgotten some - but in good time it will all end up either given as gifts to my knitter friends, or sold in my Etsy shop.

A Quiet day and a Wheel in the car

Ok - so the weather here in central CT is BEAUTIFUL today. So much that the fact I have my spinning wheel in my car is absolutely taunting me.

I took it last night to Stitch N Bitch up in Canton, where I enjoyed some wonderful company, and talked to one gal about cloth diapering while evidently kicking off another one's "ewwwwwwwwwww" meter, as she's a bit of a germaphobe. Something to do with the whole washing peed and pooped in diapers in the same machine you wash your clothing in. Urm - soiled clothing is soiled clothing and I for one am very glad for my washing machine's sanitize setting. Even if it does take three hours to wash a load of diapers using it. I need to go through my links on why cloth, and using wool, and all that other happy hoopla...

While there I finished spinning some really nastily balanced yarn I had been plying. It's a grape purple and Peanut butter tan color, and I'm going to have to see about re-spinning it to see if I can get it balanced properly before I skein it. Turns out the bobbin was coming unglued and that really affected the spin on it. I had high hopes for that one but it's turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment.

Fortunately I had another bobbin, and some other fiber I wanted to work with. I still have much more to ply in this combo, but didn't it turn out pretty? I think I'll be coming in early to work, taking lunch outside on nice days and spinnng during that time that I'm on lunch. It will be a twofold benefit to me - stress relief during my work day, and a chance to get my Etsy shop re-stocked with something other than commercially spun but hand dyed yarns. I had all these glorious plans last weekend, and very few of them came through, so I'm slowing down and starting over this weekend, and hopefully I'll get a fraction of them done. The good news is that I start my work from home Friday schedule tomorrow, so I'll take a TV Tray outside, and work from my porch with the laptop on it. Provided traffic isn't too much, I should be able to really get into things tomorrow and while on lunch again, get some more roving dyed. I think I really prefer dying the roving, vs the finished yarn. It's just a preferance thing for me.

The Parking lot has been empty. The ratio of open spaces to filled spaces is astonishing. Spring fever really seems to have hit, and with a bang. Convertables and SUV's/Jeeps fill the lot for the cars that are here.

Then there's the motorcycles that people have been riding in. Yes, that is a Ducati. Several of them can be found in our parking lot on a nice clear day.

What I got a giggle over today however was seeing someone else is realllly ready for the weekend too. See that yellow thing in the middle of the picture? Yep - it's a small boat on the roof of someones SUV. As the weather is in the 70's I can't blame them. Winter wasn't a record breaker but wasn't fun and we've all been ready to make a break for it - and I get the feeling the owner of that boat is going to have a three day weekend. Can't say as I blame him/her.

So as it's a Thurs and my last day of the week in the office I think I too have a bit of Cabin fever. I have a full day packed of meetings and work tomorrow but I'm going to be able to do that from home, and get in some spinning time while I'm at it. It all sounds like such glorious fun and I too can't wait to get out of here. So much creativity awaits, and Friday at 5PM can't come soon enough.

Life's been good to me so far (pics)

I've got some cool things to share I'll try to keep it short vs writing a novel ;-)

We got a small stack of letters in from the IRS Saturday afternoon in the mail... Good news - they accepted my amended returns, and I need to contact them to get the new figure as Gaelon opened the mail (his name on them too and he got everything out of order and I'm kinda OCD about stuff like that) but the gist of it is we DON'T OWE 26K ANYMORE and we likely have paid what we do off already. If we haven't - it is going to be covered easily by the check in 2 weeks that will have 17 days of vacation time included in it.

*Wild Grins*

Spinning has been faboo, and I need to adjust the drums on my drum carder, and wash some wool up so I can card and then spin it (OMG what a deal on some lovely lovely lovely Jacob Wool that I have raw) I'm finally starting to get consistent with my spins I think and have gotten the knack of Navajo Plying. I've not been to Knitting in a dogs age, but I may be going bearing a skein or two for a certain friend and getting her opinion on my work (and then leaving it in her care to become something lovely - she's been knitting purses lately and I bet some of this stuff would felt all pretty like... hee hee.)

From the news of the weird... I wonder what this kind of fleece is like to work with... and shearing has got to be a real pain in the arse, and OMG the fleece is likely soooooooooooooooo icky.... it's the pig that thinks it's a sheep. For real...

I've gotten to a comfort zone with my spinning to start the research on where I want to go next with fiber arts... We eventually want to have some land and we keep coming back to the idea of doing a barn conversion... it's so damn appealing, and depending on where it's set at would affect what we did. It's still a couple of years away but I'm feeling reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllly good about us not just settling and putting out into the universe what I need and going from there.

Life treats us kindly when we ask for what we want and then take steps to assure that we can handle what comes to us. I am hoping that where ever we end up that I can have a room for crafts with lots of southern exposure, something where I can set up my wheel(s) and other spinning/dying supplies/equipment as well as eventually getting a loom. Yep - Weaving will be on the plate next, although I plan on starting with much smaller looms than a big old floor loom. I'd rather walk before running. The idea of weaving my own tapestries, baby wraps, etc from yarn I've dyed and spun my self - it's heady. I won't be able to get the big loom for a while, but I'll be growing a dyers garden next year and have a small loom on my list for Christmas this year.

Thursday night I took Tessa out and left the boys home. Garret got some much needed one on one time with Daddy and Tessa got a girls night, as did Daisy... while Daisy was getting a bath, Tessa and I went to Friendly's for ice cream. Yummy. She likes Cherrys... and kept asking the waitress for more, and then when we left she took my credit card to the register and said "I pay for my Ice cream and balloon now please." Cuteness - not just a natural defense for kids these days.

Garret's been a doll. Teething like mad though. Doesn't matter to him what he chews on as long as his mouth gets some relief.

Last night we hung out with Tessa's godfather. His wife got to meet Garret for the first time... and she seemed pretty upset that Tessa cried when Tara tried to say hello to Tessa. There's a whole history there that's ugly and lets just say when you go poof from a child's life they remember. Tessa was very much the unhappy girl when she had to say goodnight to Uncle Brian, although she was very happy to go home, as she was tired and it was later than I'd expected to be out with the kids. (Gaelon went to the movies with a different group of friends and I didn't want to try to find a sitter so I made alternate plans.)

Saturday - I took Garret with me, and went to lunch with my friend Donna and another friend Dan, he's best man in her wedding, and while her sister is technically maid of honor, I'm basically it without the title... suits me fine. Lunch was awesome, poor Dan was a bit flustered that I nursed at the table, but whatcha gonna do - Garret needed to eat too and I've never been one to hide out in the bathroom or a corner to nurse... and since I'm not out for Mardi Gras beads ( my days of being a thin sexy young thing went by when I stopped being a young thing ;-) ) I really don't care to be all flashy. So he saw a whole lot of Baby sling and back of a platinum blonde head, but no boobage LOL.

I think this is the first real pic of my shorter hair I have out on display. Needless to say - I actually like it this length, and it's all back to it's natural color - including gray hairs. I needed to actually look as close to my age as possible when interviewing for jobs this time, or there was a risk of not being taken seriously. I don't get taken serious in the professional world as often as I'd like because I look younger than my 38 years.

Sat Night - Dinner with Lonnie, who I've not seen for maybe 4 months. She's always a treat and I enjoy her company. I wish Tessa hadn't been so overstimulated, and I'm sure Gaelon kinda came across as overbearing, but she'd really given him a time of it, and we probably should have stayed in but we had some errands to run before dinner and then getting the chance to see Lonnie was presented and we went for it. She and Garret hit it off well, when Garret wasn't chowing down himself. My poor single friends - the whole exposure to nursing in public has to be culture shock for them... if nothing else though, hopefully I am helping normalize it for them so it's not so shocking when our other friends or they themselves have kids.

Life has been good lately. I thank the powers that be profusely each day when the day is good. On the bad days - I'm trying to figure out what lesson the universe has in store for me that day. There's got to be something.

Weekend Recap - Now with photos!

Warning - this is a weekend recap. And believe it or not I left out details...

Friday night Gaelon and I decided that we needed to do a couple of things when it comes to our dog. First – she really needs to get up to date on her shots. No more waiting. She also needs to get into training, and I’m trying to see if I can get some training and boarding done simultaneously… or consecutively… I now need to find a new vet as I met with a trainer this morning and Daisy will be going to Doggy Daycare to help her blow some steam and be a reasonably well behaved family pet. (found, scheduled and we're on our way)

Saturday we went to Applebee’s for lunch, while people were participating in nurse in’s (Nurse in = Protest) across the country we had our own little Nurse Out (Nurse Out = Normalizing breastfeeding by nursing in public) from 12-2, as we had lunch and then Garret decided he wanted lunch.

In our neck of the woods there were no protests scheduled, and to be honest – we’ve never had problems at our local Applebee’s with nursing in public, but the staff has known us forever and CT has decent laws regarding protecting an infant’s right to get it’s food from the source.

A quick run into AC Moore to pick up some odds and ends, and then Walgreen’s to get some Alavert as allergies are kicking my arse (seriously – my skin feels like someone’s attacked me with a feather duster and IT WILL NOT STOP without meds,) and then back home. We ran out after dinner and went to check out Dogloo’s too as while Daisy is going to Dog Daycare when I go back to work we also want to have her to have a shelter when she is outside. Second trip out we stopped at Walgreens again as they currently have 10.00 dog beds and Daisy needs a new one. We came home to see this little fellow in the tree behind our house... Tessa was delighted and I think the Opossum was terrified.

I was browsing through EBay on Sat Night and found plans for a wool picker. Looks easy to make, and the cost wasn’t bad. Some of the wool I got in on Friday that finally arrived, and it’s not going to be easy to card out, so a picker is definitely needed before that stuff can be turned into lovely lovely pretty purple yarn. I think the wool was dyed before it was washed, and the tips seem to be darn near fused… the vegetable matter in this sucks too. It’s only about one pound out of 10+ but still… so the seller of the plans and I were emailing back and forth (lovely woman with a farm in NH) and we were talking about my stash of fiber that I need to wash and card… and did she have a carder for sale too or could she recommend me one?

She had one alright. So we made plans to go up to NH to pick it up on the next day (which was Sunday – I’m not sure when I’ll get to post this.) As were in the mid 80’s when we left with just oppressive humidity, I figured that a tank top and leggings for Tessa and a little jumper onesie for Garret would be fine. We regularly go for a long drive on Sunday, and the directions seemed to not be too much longer than we normally do. Urm. Well that’s what it appeared.

The closer we got to the Vermont border, the colder it got. Then the bright sunny day turned into downpour city. I kid you not, the rain just fell like a curtain that I could barely see to drive through for what felt like an eternity. From Northhampton Mass until the Vermont border itself – we were rained on and the temperature was now nearly 20 degrees cooler than at home.

We pulled into the Visitor center, to let Tessa run off some steam, and so I could nurse. There was a corner of the center that had big glass windows overlooking a meadow and a mountain behind it, with two large rocking chairs, anda big old fireplace. T

The fireplace wasn’t lit, but the chairs were nice to nurse in, and I rocked while nursing Garret, while Tessa played decorator with the pictures on the window sill. She brought one to me saying “Uncle Riss, Uncle Riss” and yes it was a soldier, a picture of one of Vermont’s boys claimed by this horrible mess we’ve gotten ourselves into in Iraq. I told her that it was a special picture and to put it back with the other special pictures as it would be lonely without it’s friends, and that we’d call Uncle Riss soon.

I’m pro support of our soldiers, they work their arses off, but I just wish that they had a better Commander in Chief who gave them and the country they serve the respect due.

Ok – my political babblings aside, it was a sweet but bitter experience, nursing my son in such a lovely location with the faces of dead sons lost in Iraq staring back at me. I held my baby boy even tighter when looking at those pics.

Moving on and driving through the country side we watched the clouds and steam rolling off the mountains, and marveled at the fact that the trees seem about 3 weeks ahead of schedule for turning. This inspired conversation about what we could do to make our home easier to handle in the winter cold this year, and what were we going to do about the sun porch which has only screen windows, not real windows.

Crossing into NH from Vermont was an experience. First – we had to cross under a set of railroad tracks and through this tiny underpass that really should only be traversed by one vehicle at a time. Other cars tried simultaneously going through, but I waited traffic out. Crossing the Connecticut river we then went from Rural to darn near Pastoral… and so beautiful.

Getting to the farm we pulled in and as Garret was asleep Gaelon stayed in the car with him. Tessa and I went into the house to get the carder, and also to see the horses, which were on the other side of the house (the house was a converted barn and I’m drooling over her stone sinks and the architecture of the house.) Elizabeth (the gal who sold me the picker plans and the drum carder) had a basket of hay and a whistle ready to call the horses for Tessa, who promptly fell in love with them… my god these were HUGE – and were a draft horse/Arabian mixes… black with a little white star each, they towered over my small girl who was drunk on love for the majestic beasts. The adoration seemed close to mutual, but it could have been love of the food set out in front of them too.

So that Drum Carder? It’s a MAMOTH of a carder, a triple carder made by Anderson. It’s beautiful, but HUGE. Did I mention it’s HUGE?

I also got 3# of unwashed Jacob wool fleece from her. Oh the fluff love… what I can spin and what I will be spinning this winter, it will be very, very nice, as the wool is very soft as is right now.

We headed home and played tourist, taking the pictures you see in this post. All so very lovely, and even Tess got in on the picture taking. I’m thinking for her upcoming third birthday we’re going to have to get her a camera… she’s got a lovely eye too.

Dinner was at Cracker Barrel, and Garret sat at the table with us in a high chair, and was not happy that we were eating and he was given toys to play with. He’s still on mommy milk exclusively thanks to his tempestuous tummy. Needless to say – he bitched a fair bit and tried to grab cutlery. Pics courtesy of Tess, Mommy and Daddy here at Cracker Barrel.

After dinner for the rest of us it was time to go back to boob for Garret, who would gladly just be strapped to my chest for 75% of the day. I sat on the porch of Cracker Barrel while they had their porch (sidewalk) sale in a rocker, and nursed him until he was full. One of the staff members looked at me nursing, rubbed his head and said “Soups on little guy, enjoy, as it never gets healthier” I thought that was a pretty cool thing coming off of the fact that the Nurse In’s had happened all over the place on the same weekend. So while he ate, I reflected on the true good fortune I’ve had – yes I’m losing my job at CLG, and I’ll miss it there terribly, but the time spent has been good to me. The last year at home with my babies? Priceless. Just priceless. When I go into a new working situation, I’ll know that my kids are in the best hands ever, and my future is secure.

So tomorrow I get Daisy in for her shots, get her basic training started and on Friday she goes in for her spay. She’ll come home to her new pillow which I’ll have in her crate with some blankets we’ve laid both kids in with the new pillow for family friendly smells, and as she becomes more family oriented, we’ll get her more integrated into our family like she should have been from the beginning. Never again will I bring a pet home when in all reality I KNOW I can’t give it what it needs at that point of time in my life.

In my defense – she was slated to go to my dad for training, but that didn’t work out as my dad’s off in the great beyond playing with Daisy the first and quayle hunting or something…

Ok – I’ll add pictures to this post later on, and if you got all the way through this – YAY You! It’s 3 pages before images in MS Word.